Sailing vessels, large and small, afford mobility. As Tristan Jones observed, a sailboat is the only terrestrial vehicle with unlimited range. And they are an important precursor to industrial civilization.

Depending on how they are designed, they also provide shelter; transportation of persons, gear and cargo; a working platform for fishing, construction and dredging.

Technologies involved span the full spectrum from low to high. Fully functional vessels may be constructed, rigged and sailed with pre-industrial technologies. These are by no means simplistic, however... each approach is a complex suite of hard earned techniques.

So, from the perspective both of individual survival and livelihood, and of industrial ReBoot, sailing vessels can play an important role.